Advance Wars Online?

SimReality/Nick Wrote:I'm not 100% sure on this, but I don't think there would be a problem with using "Wars" in the name as long as the name is not "Advance Wars". I also don't think there would be a problem with calling the CO's, CO's because that simple stands for Commanding Officer and that seems general enough for me.

Well, sureÖ Nintendo wouldn't perhaps sue(unless the game becomes really huge) but everybody would call it a simple clone. And what's the fun in that? If you take a concept like this, that has been made popular by a single game(in modern times) then you need to atleast have original names.

"Gameplay Uber Alles. And if you can make it psychedelic too, great!" - Jeff Minter

DaFalcon Wrote:I didn't realize there have been a line of "Wars" games, but I guess that explains the generic "Advance Wars" title... it comes from a long line of genericism. Were any of those games released in the US?

Advance Wars was a first for the US. I played GBC Wars before I heard about Advance Wars. So, I made sure to send Nintendo a message about getting Advance Wars here to the US. Good thing they were convinced! Advance Wars was the most well-balanced in the series. The SNES/Super Famicom one had too many units which got in the way. The GBC version was a lot more balanced and simpler, but still could use improvements. But Advance Wars gave the game character with the introduction of COs. And the units were balanced completely.

Now there's a GameCube version on the way, but it's no longer a turn-based game, which may or may not be a good thing.

Back to this project...

If you want to keep COs, how about you name them as Generals? Is that still too close for comfort?

Changing the name is a no brainer, and won't be hard. Just need a creative war-style name. Looking at the WWII shooters out there, it doesn't sound hard to come up with some creative names.

OT: The GameCube "version" is just using the style of the games and it's more of an action game with some RTS influences (you can give nearby team members commands)... not a true "wars" game at all by the looks of it.

well, its been a while since i've come to visit this forum. so far, theres been flame wars and some positive feedback from viewers too so i'm glad that this what some would think as just a "silly idea" didn't get rejected and left to rot for all eternity. i'd also like to thank you all who've defended this idea or might i call it a "fantasy" from being squashed by those who didn't think it was worth to be made.

anyway, i've been reading about suggestions about COs, so here's my oppinion: why not make COs customizable like an RPG character? what i mean is this: when you start the game, you get to chose you're charater's name/age/gender/looks/etc WITHOUT any skills and your initial units are neutral (no added bonus firepower/defence). as you play and progress through the game, you'd get to choose different type of skills with either money or skill points from winning battles. that way, you can make your own custom characters such as a CO with Andy's CO power "hyper repair" skill and Max's SCO power "max blast". of course the number of skills should be limited (2-3 CO/SCO power per CO) and price/points needed to get these skills should be high enough for players to earn in order to use them. also, obtaining such skills will effect all/some of player's own units. eg: having to choose Grit's CO power "snipe attack" lowers all direct attacking unit's firepower and increases indirect attack unit's firepower by a certain percentage. choosing Grit's SCO power "super sniper" increases this percentages. that way, players get to custom build their own COs from scratch and are more heavily dependent on their own ability to utilise these skills and tactic in winning battles.

units on the other hand...well, in gamefaqs' advance wars forum, they have TON and TONS of ideas, ranging from infrantry grenaders to mobile rocket silos, even new type of terains such as desert where it effects unit's movement and hp, so you can help yourself getting new ideas there.

well, i hope to hear some opinion of this idea, maybe even some suggestions to improve it

edit: oh yeah, i've forgotten to mention about the name for this game, hm... the name "advance wars" came from it being a war-type games on the gameboy advance platform. so howabout "war online" (if this game will ever be available for multiplayer online gaming) or "tactical assault" or even "general tactics" (that is if the term CO is changed to generals). i'll add some more names if i'd ever think up of a cooler one.

I like the idea of being able to modify your CO abilities as with an RPG ... perhaps you could "spend" your "XP" (or whatever) on quickening the amount of time it takes to "recharge" your current power, or you can add another power, but it will take a long time to recharge. Or perhaps you can make the power itself more powerful. Etc.

Though I'm not too thrilled with the idea of copying the very genericism of Advance Wars' title; I'd rather see something more creative.

well, finaly thought of something new. instead of staging this game in the current time, why not a futuristic battles betwen galaxies like starcraft? story goes as so:

"The year was 3005, a century after the great battle of "Armegedon" which almost destroyed 1/2 of all human population in "Wars World" (or Earth just to stay away from AW storyline). Many great heroes have risen and fallen during this war and with their united strenght, they've defeated the intergalactic invaders who called themselves "The Black Hole" (or other name which you find suitable to replace). Many years later, Man have depart from they're dying planet to seek new suitable planets outside their solar system and began to populate. New civilizations were created and many alien planet were discovered. They established alliances with these alien races and traded good, knowledge and culture with each other. They lived in peace and harmony and everything was fine until one day,"they" returned... "

basicly, the game is set in the future. different planet represent different countries like AW. and each planet have their own COs to protect their planet. units are much more futuristic and have their own advantages/disadvantages. gameplay is still much the same (turn-based) and powers are available for each general/CO. battles are staged from sea/ground/sky and space.

however, there are several differences in the gameplay. instead of playing as each individual COs from different planet, you start of from scratch as a non-skilled CO who learns from battling all these planets with the help of these COs. skills can be learned from skill points accumilated from winning battles or bought with cash. cash also funtions as means to upgrade unit and adding stats bonuses (eg. firepower, defence, ammo, fuel, movement, lowering power recharge time etc). power skills learned from battles is limited to the number of CO you fought for but you can only set a number of skill for each battle (2-3 skill power). and each of this skill effects the overall unit's stats. enemy CO which you'll encounter will be random compared to the fixed enemy CO from AW to make the game more challenging for players.

also the added space battle will give players a new surrounding compared to the old sea/ground/air battles. in space battles, both player and opponent start of with one giant space battle cruisser and a number of fighters. this battle cruisser acts as both factory and HQ. it also can move around the terain just like any unit (with limited number of movement space of course). the number of unit built depends on the amount of cash you have (eg: unit cost is $1000, you have $3000, so you can built 3 of those units at one time). cash is gained from mining meteorites for minerals in space. these field acts as resourse and defensive cover for units. besides tat, there are several different units to attack/support that you can built ranging for fighters to carriers which have direct and indirect attack capability.

i've left out units/terain description up to your own imagination. you may also set new CO powers for these COs. as for then name, well, i've havn't figured out a great original name for this game idea, was hoping someone out there could give suggestions. also, this is just an idea, i don't expect anyone to take it seriously, just want to share my thoughts, thats all

One of the reasons I liked Advance Wars was because it was modern military-based. I had enough of the stragtegy games that took place in space, or back in time, or went through the past, present, and future. They make things confusing. Stick with the formula that works.

Well, it doesn't seem like were going anywhere with this so I've finaly decided to give up on this game idea... I'm just gonna let this post sink and probably just forget about making an already perfect GBA game into a multi-player online game.

The main reason I thought this up at the first place was cause I wanted to play with real people instead of AI battles over and over again. Back in my country, GBA isn't really selling well compared to other console games, namely PS2. Also, people who tends to buy GBA here are kids, either because of its portability or just its cheaper the the PS2. Ironicly, I'm in my 20's and all my friends either own a PS2 or a computer to play their games.

So here I am, sitting here with a really wonderful game which is comparable to chess and battling out like any turn based war-strategy games out there AND not be able to share it with non-GBA owners. I have no programing skills what-so-ever, so it's definitely impossible for me to build my own game, which is why i came to this forum at the first place.

Well, I guess I'll take my leave. I'd also like t thank you all who've been posting and replying ever since I've posted this up. It's been fun sharing you're view of this idea of mine (and yours too) and really hope that someday, someone out there might finaly make this dream come true.

Yeah, it's not like any of us have a claim on this. Not at least until one of us starts, and I don't think I'm gonna have time for it anymore. I'm in my senior year (taking 3 APs) so I doubt I'll find enough time to make anything.

I recently stumbled across your talk of an online version of AW. The Funny thing is I was thinking of exactley the same thing. Not having any proggraming experience it appears that it is pretty much out of my grasp, placing me in a similar situation to the most of you. However...

Nintendo has really created a great game genre and it really is quite perfect. Even though AW 2 unbalanced it a bit with that all conquering Neo-Tank, the 3RD in the serious looks interesting for DS...

But i'm sure that if you approached nintendo FIRST and told them that you would be making a 'similar' game for online play then that would be fine... although Im not sure that the suits would allow it, if you spoke to a designer or someone with more intrest then money then it could be worked out.

So the real challenge of it is getting it made... I mean once its made, people would play it and so you would achieve your goal. Now, I have certain 'freinds' and im sure you do to that would be more then happy to work on the project by themselves or with others if they had the right motevation. In other words money.
Although it might be a risk to begin with, if you HAD to pay them im pretty sure that you could make a return by either 1, charging the people who play the game (This is EXACTLEY what i want to avoid) or 2, by placing adds or sponsership in the game and generating revenue from that. Best thing is its free so the more people who play it, the more you can charge and recieve for having the adds there. This would also allow (once the game gathered significant momentum) whoever to own servers and work on the tweaks ladders and other elements that keep it interesting and running FULL TIME. Now this might sound a little bit 'out there' or 'forward thinking' but if it was made using this formula then not only could it be highly profitable but IT WOULD BE MADE AND AROUND FOR EVER, or until nobody wanted to play (which woudn't happen with all the tweaks and specialities that come around) or they got sued . Which im extremely confident woudn't happen (as in it might but there is no way that they could pull it off and dadada would get sued ). So what are your thoughts on somthing like this? Its free and gets better and better the more people play it.